How do I into Russian literature? Where do I start?

Start with Turgenev

It doesn't fucking matter.

Jesus I swear the people on this board have a special kind of autism

only

>I know what the author looked like therefore I can appreciate his work better than you.

They're not movie stars. Their mugs literally and literalily don't matter.

Tolstoy and dosto

Gogol is underrated, glad to see someone mention him

Honestly I'd say start with Chekhov just to get a feel of the culture. His stories often deal with Russian life and help introduce new terms and history to an unfamiliar reader. And plus his stories are typically short so it's easy to digest. Then afterwards you can take your pick of who to go with

I was in New York on holiday last year and found an awesome Chekhov collection for around 10 bucks. Been looking online for the same book ever since (I still vaguely remember the cover). Still regret not picking it up since I didn't want to carry it around the rest of the day.

Just start with the memes.

The one Russian author I like the most is Gorkij, but then again, I've only read his autobiographical trilogy. His prose is beautiful (Swedish translation), and his side-rants are short and to the point, which makes them interesting instead of a waste of time. I've tried to read Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, and neither work for me - especially the latter, because you can tell that it was written for the money. I have an old translation of Underground diary or whatever it's properly translated as, but I never read more than a couple of pages. Should probably get back to that one.

Pusjkin has some fantastic works, and he is also the one everyone else is indebted to, so he's probably a good place to start. I've only read poems by him, and I like Romantic stuff, so take my opinion for what it is.

I read Anna Karenina when I was 18 and thought it was shit, because I constantly got annoyed at Anna Karenina herself. At this time, I didn't know/realize that she was a symbol for the new, Westernized Russia as Tolstoj saw it. With this in mind, I should probably give it another shot (this time I gave up after a little less than half of it). I really liked the parts about Levin. This is also a good place to start since the conflict between liberal/Westernized intelligentia and conservative/anti-Western nobility runs through many other Russian works, and is important to have knowledge of when analysing anything Russian after Peter the Great.

Master and Margarita is good, but I've heard that Heart of a Dog is better. I haven't read it myself, but I think my friend told me that because he's vehemently anti-Communist and Heart of a Dog is more open about criticising the Soviet Union.

I have some stuff by Tjeckov, but if I've read it, I've forgotten. The Cherry Garden is supposedly a good place to start.

See if you can find a book called Worlds Apart. It's allegedly about Russian sci-fi and fantasy, but it traces the roots of these genres to older Russian literature, surrounding "the fantastic". I dislike those who try to give their own genre a more glorious past (literally We wuz kangs), but the book is a good anthology of Russian literatur in general with biographies and general background info. Probably a good place to get started so that you don't buy the collected works of every Russian author between 1700 and 1900 and give up after a week of reading.

Also, Gogol - his stuff is hilarious, a little feely, and brilliantly written. I recommend starting with The Nose and The Coat.

But seriously, Gorkij is the best and his autobiography should be available in your language, as he was a friend of Lenin's (at least at times). The titles are: My Childhood, In the World, and My Universities.

Even though I hate Russans today their literary heritage is great, and it's left for all of us to enjoy. Best of luck, and happy reading.

This, in that order (just switch Gogol and Lermontov)

Make sure you're in the throes of depression first

>no foreign reader ever reads Ilf and Petrov
What a pity.

Thank you

no

Sure I do they are part of my expanded list

>Anna Karenina is my favorite book by Tolstoy. So enjoyable to read.

Master and Margarita > Heart of a Dog
Both are great tho.

>heart of a dog better than M&M
kys you fucking pleb

You're alright, user
You must be 12 years old, go somewhere else

They should be the part of the basic list, user. For one, they are much easier to get into while no less worthy of reading. And, being a rare case of optimistic post-revolution writers, they are essential as far as russian literature goes.

>Starting Points

With Tolsoy or Dosto. I recommend "Notes From Underground" by Dosto. From there, feel free to read books from both these guys.

>Expand_dong.jpg
Gogol
Lermontov
Chekov
Gorki
Zamyatin
Bulgakov
Turgenev
Pushkin

>really liked the parts about Levin
you sound like an autist

Pushkin
Tolstoy
Chekhov
Bulgakov

The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
&
anything by Solzhenitsyn

Why pick Tolstoyevsky as starting points ? Pushkin and Gogol should be read first.

I was 18, I'm 24 now. Not saying I'm 100% autism-free, but at least I've improved (though somehow I miss certain parts of being more autistic, like the arrogance that made me disregard authorities and just read whatever the fuck I wanted).

Thanks man.

No worries.

It was my friend who said this, I haven't read Heart of a Dog. Also, let's take this moment to reflect on the use of "pleb" and terms like it. Right now, I'm reading Jan Myrdal, a crazy communist about to die, who literally thinks Pol Pot did nothing wrong. Myrdal has an interesting thing to say about Swedish literature that I think could be applied here (the book is Ord och avsikt in case anyone wonders):

Certain authors yearn for status. They may have other ideas that inspire them to write, but status is also a big part of what they want. These authors, once they achieve a position which Veeky Forums would call "patrician" they stop growing, and either become shit or just boring. It's the freedom to disregard that makes an author really good, and authors like that don't get into the allegedly patrician literary societies, such as the French or Swedish academies. Societies like these are made to formalize language and literature, and thus distance it from ordinary people, in an attempt to make those "on the inside" distinct from others, ordinary people.

Veeky Forums has been obsessed with being "patrician" for as long as it has existed. Even though the exact nature of what the posters have longed for (a "patrician" gf used to be a more common object of desire, now it's getting published or receiving praise from Veeky Forums, for instance by being able to make references to Joyce and DFW), there has constantly been a desire to prove on an anonymous board that the own taste is correct - almost the same as that of others in the group, but slightly better than some, so that not only is the individual user part of the group, but also leading it. This, however, leads to the stagnation of Veeky Forums and its active posters. Looking at some recommendations isn't wrong, but it can stop you from spontaneous reading. And no matter if you read the Greeks, John Green, or a crazy Swedish communist, the spontaneity is what drives you onward, creating new ideas. Being a "pleb" partially means reading shit, but "shit" is defined as "that which is not accepted by "patricians". You need the one group to keep the other going, yet branding certain books as undesirable hinders the freedom to discover or rediscover gems hidden in the dirt.

Calling others "pleb" without explaining why their choices were bad hinders creativity and the forming of new ideas. Literature does not belong only to people who read IJ, and though I agree that reading should be stimulating, getting mad att Stephen King fans in order to distinguish yourself only leads to the stifling of creativity, which benefits no one.

Now please tell us why we should read Heart of a Dog.

start with Pushkin, then Gogol, then you can go into Turgenev and Dostoevsky, then Tolstoy, and Bely, there's all sorts of russians out there, but I'd go in that order.

Tolstoy is gonna bore the fuck out of you OP, if nothing else, just jump into Crime & Punishment, at least. It's involving and grim and mentally satisfying in a way that's pleasing to modern mindsets. Yes, Tolstoy is an incredible author, but if you were to sit down and read W&P right from jump street, you're going to have a bad time without any preliminary understanding. Even something so simple as the names being changed for certain occasions (like calling someone William, or Billy in different instances) can seem to hang up people new to russian lit. Just start with some short stories by Pushkin and Gogol (i'd keep away from eugene onegin just because of the difficulty of poetic translation from russian) Pushkin's belkin stories and Gogol's The Nose, Diary of a Madman, and my personal favorite, The Portrait will lead you well on your way. Dostoevsky is quite dark and brooding, and his books are involving. his short stories are sometimes off the mark, (the double meandered a bit) but in all honesty are some of the greatest things i've ever read. I genuinely wish you the best of luck in reading russian literature, it's a place I continue to go back to, just to bask in the pure comfiness of it all. I've still tried to find a better group of authors, and I always seem to come up missing when compared to them. I'm still searching though!

oh, and Bely is end boss material. Guy was a fucking absolute genius.

Pushkin's prose is bland. Start with Gogol or Chekhov's short stories.

hey fuck you. Pushkin was a god damned genius and essentially started the whole cultural movement. He's a damn good foundation, and his stories don't last more than a few fucking pages.

also
>pushkin is bland but chekhov is not

His poetry is awesome hands down. But I don't see any real reason to read his prose, apart from it having been written by Pushkin. And don't talk shit about Chekhov.

>chekhov wouldn't even exist without pushkin's short stories

user. just stop, for the love of god.

>Pushkin's belkin stories
>Pushkin's prose is bland
m8, you know he's ripping on convention in those.

and "Pushkin's prose is bland" ignores most of his fairy tales and his most famous novel are verse, so even if his prose could be bland, which it isn't, you're only really commenting on the ones which either style themselves satirically on previous works and stuff that obviously triggered you for being happily ever after. your opinion seems tantamount to "loving words hurt me, we should pretend that's a technical fault". seek help

belkin stories were great though, obviously there's plenty of other things that he wrote that are wonderful, but i was just giving a noob's guide to intoing russians.

might you have some suggestions for pushkin's stories for a beginner to read?

pleb detected

Ruseians are plebs.

They are not Marx, Engels and Lenin, user.

Why has no one recommended this?

In this order:

Karamzin - Poor Liza
Pushkin
Gogol
Lermontov
Dostoyevsky/Turgenev/Goncharov/Tolstoy/Leskov/Korolenko/Chekhov
Mayakovsky/Makarenko/Mandelstam/Gorky/Babel/Bunin/Bulgakov
Pasternak/Shalamov/Sholokhov
Solzhenitsyn

holla if you need more, f.am

This

Because it's unbearable. The movie is an improvement; cuts out all the superfluous details.

It's a good book, but it's not a place to start